Article-level metrics (ALMs) aim to quantify the usage (downloads, views), impact (citations), saves (bookmarks), and discussion (social media) of scholarly work at the article level. ALMs comprise a set of easy-to-understand real-time impact indicators that track how an article is read, discussed, or cited. The usage is collected from individual accesses to the Copernicus library servers (robot traffic is filtered), the impact is counted from CrossRef and Google Scholar citations, the saves are counted from CiteULike and Mendeley, and the discussions are represented by Research Blogging, Facebook, ScienceSeeker, Nature Blogs, Wikipedia, WordPress.com, Reddit, and Google Blogs.

In comparison to the traditional way of measuring impact at the journal level, ALMs offer a more informative way of assessing the overall influence and reach of the articles themselves.

Article-level metrics are available for all articles of journals published by Copernicus Publications. Authors can stay up to date with their published articles and share the information about the impact of their published work with peers, funding institutions, research bodies, and the overall scientific community.